I see disaster coming before it strikes as Margo rushes out of the swinging doors. I rush to her and catch the box of desserts seconds before it comes crashing to the floor. I set it on the counter and catch her up in my arms before she can hit the floor herself. Her breath rushes out as I pull her against my chest, wrapping both arms around her.
“Careful,” I murmur lowly.
“Thank you…” she says breathlessly.
“You’re welcome, sweetness.”
Just as I’m about to crush my mouth to hers, the bell on the door dings, and Margo jumps away from me like she’s been burned. Fuck me. It’s her friend Prue. I swear those friends of hers are the biggest cockblockers in the world. First Lani and now Prue. Thankfully, Prue seems to catch the tension and gets her coffee and muffin and leaves quickly.
I don’t hesitate a moment longer. I grab Margo’s hand and drag her willing body to the kitchen. Before the door swings shut, I have her in my arms, and I’m kissing her like the starving man I am. I’ve craved her lips for longer than I’d like to admit, and my imagination didn’t do her flavor justice. She tastes better than her sweetest dessert.
Her lips are just as soft as they appear and twice as delicious. I wrap my fingers around the back of her neck and tilt her head back so I can deepen the kiss. She willingly opens for me, and I get the first taste of her smooth tongue. Her tongue slicks against mine excitedly, and before I know what I’m doing, I have her lifted in my arms, and I’m striding across the kitchen and setting her sexy ass on the countertop.
“Amos… we can’t…” I take her lips in another searing hot kiss, not letting her finish her protest. She rips her mouth away from me, panting. “Not here…” she tries to protest again, but I steal her words again with a kiss.
All pretense of argument flees from her body as she melts into me. Her legs wrap around me, and her hot little pussy grinds against my cock. We both groan at the contact, and our mouths become frantic. I’m so hard I could come in my jeans just from her rubbing against me like she is.
Like a glass of ice water dumped all over us, the bell over the door dings, and a customer calls out for help. I pull away, resting my forehead to hers as we try to catch our breaths. “It’s like the world is conspiring against us.”
She nods with a pout. “I think it is…”
“Helloooo,” the customer yells out.
“Just a fucking minute,” I growl.
Margo slaps her hand on my chest and gives me a dirty look that I kiss right off her face. She pulls away with a grumble then slides down my body as she hops down from the counter. She’s halfway to the door when I twirl her around and lay another searing kiss on her pouty mouth.
“Have dinner with me.”
Her eyes flash with indecision and something that looks a lot like longing. “I don’t know…”
“Please, Margo.”
She gives me a shy smile. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say my name…”
I encircle her in my arms again. “Please, have dinner with me, Margo,” I rasp in her ear. From the way she shivers, I can tell how much she’s affected by me.
She nods. “Okay… when?”
“Excuse me, is anyone working in this place?!” the impatient customer calls.
“Be there in a second!” Margo says, sounding more annoyed than apologetic.
“Tonight, my place.”
Her eyes heat at the implication. “Sounds good,” she says lowly. “Tonight…”
I nod. “Tonight, sweetness.”
“Ma, I don’t need help getting a date.”
“If you didn’t need help, you’d be married and giving me grandbabies already. I’m not going to be around forever.”
I do my best to hold in the long-suffering sigh that’s trying to escape. “I have a date tonight,” I confess. It’s not like she won’t hear it from Daisy, my mom’s busybody best friend who still works at the diner even though she should’ve retired years ago.
“You do?” my mom says a little warily. “Who?”
“Margo Schultz, she owns Sprinkled With Sugar.”
“Hmm… that the girl Daisy was going on about?”
I shake my head. “Ma, how am I supposed to know what that menace has or hasn’t told you. I swear you move to Arizona, and you’re more in my business than you were while you lived right here.”
She laughs. “I just have to keep tabs on my baby boy.”
“I’m thirty, I don’t think I need tabs kept on me anymore.”
“Ha! That’s what you think. So when’s the wedding?”
“Jesus, ma. We haven’t even had a first date yet. Maybe tomorrow?” My words drip sarcasm, but something in my heart burns at the thought. Making Margo mine permanently, getting my ring on her finger—yeah, I like the sound of that.
“You need to settle down. Your dad won’t be with us much longer, and you know how much he wants you to be happy.”
My dad has Alzheimer’s and is rapidly declining. It’s one of the reasons they moved to Arizona. My dad wanted to stay here, but my mom insisted they move to be where the leading doctor that specializes in Alzheimer’s lives. That’s when I took over the diner. I didn’t always see myself as a diner owner… I had other aspirations of my own, but family comes first, always.
It may not be a five Michelin star restaurant in New York, but Burnt Sugar Diner is exactly where I’m meant to be, even if I hadn’t realized it. I love this town and the people in it. Aside from that, I never would’ve met Margo if I had run off to New York to become the next Ramsey. Margo is reason enough to never leave Sugarhill.
“I don’t have to settle down to be happy.”
My mom makes a tsking sound but doesn’t respond. She knows I’m right; however we both want to do everything we
